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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

#19 – Point Everything in the Same Direction (Tips For Large Group Teaching)

Welcome to a continuing series of tips on working with large groups of children. I hope that you will find these tips useful and be able to implement them in your dealings with large groups of kids. If you do, please leave a comment and let us know. For a complete list of posts in this series, please see the index page. So, without further introduction, here is today’s installment.

Everything we do in Children’s Ministry should have a purpose.  The introduction, the game, the lesson itself, the video – whatever you use in your lesson should all point the kids towards the same point.  The time we get to spend with the kids in our ministry is limited every weekend, and we have to make the most of the time we have been given.  Like other things given to us by God, we must be good stewards of the time he allows us to spend with his kids.

So, get rid of frivolous time-filling activities, and use all that extra time to teach, to preach and to disciple young followers of Christ.  When you’re planning your lesson for the weekend, keep this question in mind, “Where does everything point?”  If the answer to that question is anything other than Jesus, you might want to rework your lesson!  Jesus must be at the center of each lesson, and everything we do should point to him.  If you’re playing “Follow the Leader” to teach kids about following Jesus, that’s perfect.  It you’re playing just to kill some time, that is not good stewardship.  When you pick worship songs, try to pick songs which reinforce the week’s lesson.  When everything points at the same goal, it’s hard for the kids not to head in that direction.

Return to the Tips for Large Group Teaching in Children’s Ministry index page.

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